People and their animals. A Bedouin sheepherder contemplates moving his family to the city in Faces (Jordan, 16 min., Said Najmi). Herd in Iceland (USA, 28 min., Lindsay Blatt & Paul Taggart) chronicles the annual roundup of the country’s purebred horses, after a summer roaming free. Of Cows and Men (USA, 4 min., Emily Fraser) follows a dairy farmer during difficult […]
These five shorts capture the honesty and wisdom of youth. Cancer upends a dancer’s dreams in Like a Dance (USA, 6 min., Jill Orschel). Follow My Steps (USA, 16 min., Andrew Hida) details a friendship between a 13-year-old and a 21-year-old, bonded by physical disability. An undocumented young woman shares her story in I Was […]
This program demonstrates the bonds of family, even under the most trying circumstances. In Beyond Broken, Vasso, dependent on her family after a brutal attack, turns to art to find the will to go on (USA, 38 min., Andrew Morreale). A grandson realizes his late grandfather’s secret dream of becoming a filmmaker in quicksand (USA, 8 min., Lance […]
WORLD PREMIERE In a rock band twist on the 7 Up series, Lucy Kostelanetz intermittently checks in on a white teen funk band—three brothers and their friend—whose plan of making it big in 1980s NYC didn’t exactly pan out. In 1983, Miller, Miller, Miller & Sloan seemed on the brink of stardom, with positive press […]
NYC PREMIERE The residents of a dying Colorado mining town pin their hopes for economic resurgence on the promise of a new uranium mill—the first to be built in three decades—even as they continue to feel the dangerous effects of the last uranium boom. In the face of legal injunctions by environmental activists from a […]
NYC PREMIERE Though raised in a Modern Orthodox Jewish New Jersey household, director Anna Wexler rejected religion as a teen, finding friends with similar backgrounds. After they studied in Israel, however, these once-rebellious friends re-committed to their faith, puzzling her in the process. Teaming with Nadja Oertelt, who was raised secular, Anna follows three diverse […]
NYC PREMIERE An unexpected consequence of the 2008 presidential election, the Tea Party emerged as an ostensibly grassroots conservative political movement focused on limiting government and a political force with which to be reckoned, as demonstrated by the midterm elections. With restraint and candor, Town Hall takes an impartial but pointed look at two impassioned Pennsylvania […]
NYC PREMIERE Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s observational film is a stunningly shot sensory immersion into the Grand Magaal, an annual Muslim pilgrimage which finds a million Sufis traveling to the holy Senagalese city of Touba to honor their ancestral leader and his code of non-violence. The three-day spectacle presents a unique and essential look at Islam—one […]
NYC PREMIERE A couple sets out to construct a livable 130-square foot house—no bigger than a standard parking space—part of a growing movement that is conscious of our environmental impact and rethinks our need for more and more stuff. As their small project slowly takes shape, they—and other tiny-structure dwellers—reflect on sustainable design, material culture […]
US PREMIERE After a celebrated theatrical run in Japan, Things Left Behind makes its US debut, exploring the transformative power of “ひろしまhiroshima,” the first major international art exhibit devoted to the atomic bomb. Renowned Japanese photographer Ishiuchi Miyako staged this exhibit of large-format color photographs of clothing once worn by those who perished. “The film […]